The Nightly Turbo: Royal Flush Girls Photo Shoot, Playtech Eyes U.S. Market, and More
If you're looking for the list of 2012 Academy Awards nominees, you've come to the wrong place. However, the Nightly Turbo does have Tuesday's biggest poker stories, including three major announcements from Playtech, a photo shoot featuring the Royal Flush Girls, and more.
In Case You Missed It
The World Series of Poker Circuit Choctaw Durant Main Event came to a close on Monday. Abraham Araya emerged as the champion, collecting more than $270,000.
Phil Ivey made huge waves during Day 1c of the Aussie Millions Main Event. Check out our daily recap for the all the details from Melbourne.
Dan ��KingDan23�� Smith won the $100,000 Challenge at the Aussie Millions this week. Smith's big win was among the topics discussed in Rich Ryan's latest Five Thoughts piece.
*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour Blog.
Models in Bikinis
The World Poker Tour is on a short hiatus before it touches down in Venice next month, but the guys behind the scenes have given us plenty of reason to pay attention in the meantime.
On Monday, the WPT released a sneak preview of a bikini photo shoot featuring the Royal Flush Girls. The shoot took place during the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio. Have a look:
The WPT Blog has more.
Playtech Prepares for New Markets
Playtech's new global strategy took a major step on Tuesday as the company announced three transactions that will help position the company for regulated online gambling markets. Playtech acquired U.K. sportsbook and lottery software firm Geneity for ��11 million, and entered into joint venture partnerships with German gaming company Gauselmann and South Africa-based casino and resort operator Peermont.
Playtech CEO Mor Weizer said in a statement that the company is preparing itself for all new markets, including the United States. He discussed that opportunity with Reuters on Tuesday, saying, "We have lots of potential customers (in the U.S.) that approached us or that we approached that would like to have us as their suppliers of online gaming products when the market opens up."
Read the full story at PokerNews.com.
Facebook's Value with Online Gambling?
According to a recent article over at Business Insider, a source close to Facebook predicts that the social gaming giant would generate $100 billion in revenue when online gambling is legalized in the U.S.
Yes, that's right. One hundred billion dollars.
That number seems like a stretch considering Facebook did about $4 billion in revenue last year through advertising and gaming credits purchased through companies like Zynga. However, with a number of states now considering the legalization of online gambling in the U.S., Facebook's immensely popular social network platform would undoubtedly be a popular spot for online gamblers.
Last November, Facebook announced it was developing plans to offer real-money gambling in the United Kingdom as early as 2012. That could likely serve as a test run for Facebook to expand into other markets where online gambling is legal.
Read more at Business Insider.
Get Your TCOOP Results Here
The inaugural Turbo Championship of Online Poker at PokerStars is nearing the midway point as champions were crowned in 23 of the 50 events through Monday. Four players took down titles on Monday, each winning massive cash prizes and a 24k gold-played card protector to commemorate their accomplishment. Here's a quick look at the results:
Event #20: Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Max 1R1A ($100K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $50+5 | 1,475 | $133,100 |
Nearly 1,500 players took part in the $55 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Max event. After 936 rebuys and 241 add-ons, a prize pool of $133,100 was up for grabs. Less than four hours after it began, a three-handed deal was struck and the U.K.'s "TLD2008" went on to win the title for $19,439.
Event #21: No Limit Hold'em 4-Max ($150K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $40+4 | 4,727 | $189,080 |
Amazingly, the $44 4-Max event took four hours and 44 minutes to complete. "Biggielaw" from Hong Kong collected the top prize of $22,689 and the title after agreeing to a heads-up deal with "Alekhinebcn" from Spain.
Event #22: Limit Omaha Hi/Lo ($50K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $75+7 | 1,085 | $81,375 |
Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis fell just short of the final table in this one, finishing in 12th place for $773. He missed out on a wild finish as the final table took only 16 minutes to complete. Fellow Team PokerStars Pro Nuno Coelho from Portugal finished third for $7,731, and Norway's "thomber" claimed the title and the top prize of $14,225.
Event #23: No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max Hyper-Turbo ($200K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $150+3 | 2,995 | $449,250 |
The richest TCOOP event of the day attracted nearly 3,000 players to generate a prize pool of $449,250. A deal at the final table resulted in three players taking home at least $49,000, and Canada's "andy123460" went on to win the event and $58,754.
For more details on each event, check out the PokerStars Blog.
On Your Bike, Melanie!
How quickly could you learn to ride a unicycle? Poker pro Melanie Weisner attempted to find out this week after Tony G offered her a chance to freeroll into the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event!
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